Transportation planning and quality of life: Where do they intersect?

Abstract

Policy makers and researchers are increasingly recognizing the connections between public health and transportation, but health improvements are typically framed from a physical health perspective rather than considering broader quality of life (QOL) impacts. Currently, there is a limited understanding of the ways in which transportation and QOL intersect, and little is known about how metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in the United States are addressing QOL outcomes. This study addressed these gaps by developing a conceptual framework holistically linking transportation to QOL. The proposed framework identified four transportation-related QOL dimensions—physical, mental, social, and economic well-being—which are predominantly influenced by three components of the transportation system: mobility/accessibility, the built environment, and vehicle traffic. This framework then formed the basis for a content analysis of 148 long-range transportation plans in the United States to evaluate the extent to which QOL is being considered in the planning process. The results of the analysis and a follow-up examination of 13 plans revealed that MPOs are inconsistently addressing QOL. Plans primarily targeted QOL enhancement from the perspective of physical well-being, while mental and social well-being were rarely considered. Policy recommendations were provided to more comprehensively integrate QOL into the transportation planning process.

Considering Health in US Metropolitan Long-Range Transportation Plans: A Review of Guidance Statements and Performance Measures

“…Only ten of the plans referred to all four health components within guidance statements. Even plans with overarching general health goals tended to describe "health" in terms of air quality and physical activity; others have also found this trend (Lee and Sener, 2016). MPO LRTPs have yet to fully adopt a holistic approach to linking transportation and health (Lyons et al, 2012).…”

“…The Volpe Center metropolitan report (Lyons et al, 2012) and the Portland MPO's LRTP were used to develop the list of screening and search terms and to pilot the health content analysis. Other analyses of MPO planning documents have used similar search techniques (Handy, 2008;Lee and Sener, 2016;Manaugh et al, 2015).…”

“…However, identifying implicit mentions of health is a more difficult and subjective task, and our focus was on explicit expressions of health considerations. Other researchers have analyzed how equity, quality of life, and related issues are addressed in transportation plans (Handy, 2008;Karner and Niemeier, 2013;Lee and Sener, 2016;Manaugh et al, 2015;Martens et al, 2012).…”

“…For example, a region interested in increasing health via active transportation could include a plan goal to "increase physical activity levels", informed by a performance measure of "minutes of daily walking/bicycling per capita", further supported by improvements in how the regional travel model forecasts walking and bicycling trips (Singleton and Clifton, 2013). Other researchers have used similar perspectives when focusing on goals/objectives and performance measures in metropolitan transportation planning (Handy, 2008;Lee and Sener, 2016;Manaugh et al, 2015). Certainly, the final decision about whether and how to include health-related statements and measures must be made by MPO boards, informed by staff, expert, and public input.…”

Quality of life as the basis for achieving social welfare of the population

“…The task of improving the quality of life of the population is a nationwide challenge, solved only by joint efforts of all levels of government (Federal, regional, municipal) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The priority of government is to consistently improve the quality of life of the population, reducing poverty, ensuring decent conditions for life and development of the welfare state.…”